Big Green Purse

New oil disaster in Gulf makes strong argument for moratorium.

Another oil rig has caught fire in the Gulf of Mexico. Thirteen people were forced to jump off the rig and into the ocean to avoid harm; all of those people have been rescued, and one is being treated for injuries. Meanwhile, an oil sheen about 100 feet wide and a mile long has been spotted spreading out from the damaged oil platform.

It does not immediately appear as if this explosion is as serious as the one that rocked the Deepwater Horizon rig, owned by BP, earlier this year. That event (pictured at left) not only killed eleven people; it has also turned into the largest environmental disaster in U.S. history. During the three months it took to cap that well, millions of gallons of oil gushed into Gulf waters, killing thousands of birds, polluting some of America's most valuable wetlands, and shutting down a fishery worth billions of dollars to the local economy.

In the wake of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, the Obama administration has been trying to impose a 6-month moratorium on new rig construction to force drillers to ramp up safety and environmental protection measures. Thus far, the Administration has been outmaneuvered by the oil industry, which has successfully challenged the moratorium in court.

For the most part, it seems that people living in the Gulf support continued drilling, despite the toll taken on human life and the fisheries that support their local way of life. But the Gulf of Mexico - those waters, all the fish and shellfish that live there, the birds that breed in the bordering wetlands - none of that belongs to the Gulf residents. They don't really belong to the rest of us Americans, either. They belong to the world.

Maybe it's time for citizens of the world to make their voices heard - and to clamor for the oil industry not just along the Louisiana shoreline but around the planet - to shut down once and for all.

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Seven Ways to "Green" Your Period

If you're like most women, you'll use as many as 11,000 tampons during the course of your lifetime.

Add to that a couple of thousand pads and panti-liners and the ecological impact of your monthly cycle really starts to add up.

All that feminine hygiene creates tons of trash. Particularly egregious are the plastic applicators that come with some tampons. They're capable of escaping from any landfill - or wastebasket, for that matter - and often end up bobbing i a lake or river,or littering a playground or the roadside. The darn things are so indestructible even a car can run over them and not destroy them.

Conventional products may contain a mixture of rayon and cotton. Rayon has been implicated in Toxic Shock Syndrome, particularly for super-absorbent tampons. Cotton is highly pesticide-intensive; around 16 percent  of the pesticides used globally are devoted to growing cotton. Plus, to look as white as possible, conventional pads and tampons may be bleached with chlorine, a process that can create dioxin, a known carcinogen.

Says Nena Baker, author of The Body Toxic, “If you're a woman who is concerned enough about pesticide-tainted cotton to buy organic cotton clothing, it seems to me that you would, and likely should, have equal or greater concern about a product that is used inside our bodies."

Sheila Hollender, a co-founder of Seventh Generation, agrees. In fact, she says, it’s why her company manufactures tampons and sanitary pads made from 100% organic cotton fiber. "Your choice of our chlorine free products can help reduce the amount of chlorinated toxins released into the environment and help make the world a healthier place for your family," she said when I spoke with her recently about Seventh Gen's "Let's Talk Period" campaign, an effort to educate women about how to make healthier tampon choices.

 The U.S. Food and Drug Aministration (FDA) regulates tampons and feminine care products in the marketplace. While the FDA admits that conventional tampons contain trace amounts of dioxin,the agency believes the chemicals in tampons pose no risk.  Counters Sheila Hollender,  "The problem with the FDA’s position is that it doesn’t allow for the accumulative exposure over a 40-year use of tampons." In other words,  we're not subject to one slight exposure, but 11,000 or more. 

GoodGuide, the online eco-rating system, claims that rayon is actually more environmentally-friendly than cotton, since it is more absorbent and therefore requires less material per tampon to do the job. Sheila Hollender acknowledges that "they have a point vis a vis rayon." However, "they do not discuss the process that takes the wood pulp and turns it into rayon.  Chlorine dioxide is used to bleach the rayon fibers used in conventional tampons.  Furthermore, they don’t go into the issue of TSS" since their ratings do not evaluate tampons based on their actual health effects.

My recommendations?

1) Switch to a menstrual cup. You can skip tampons altogether by using a cup to catch your monthly discharge. The cup is as easy to use as a diaphragm is for birth control; you squeeze the rim to insert it, then pull it out and wash it in hot (but not boiling) soapy water so you can use it again. Depending on the brand, menstrual cups are available in latex or silicone and come in several sizes. MenstrualCups.Org offers a comprehensive overview of the plusses and minuses of using the cup, along with reviews of the brands available. Here's one immediate benefit: a menstrual cup will save you a lot of money on throwaway tampons or pads.

2) Use organic cotton tampons.  When you do use tampons, stick to the precautionary principle and choose organic cotton.  Some brands to consider: Seventh Generation; NatraCare; Maxim.

3) Skip the applicators. Some applicators are plastic; others are cardboard. The best options are those without an applicator that you insert yourself, like o.b. tampons or Maxim.  I can tell you from personal experience, it is extremely easy to insert a tampon without an applicator. Just wash your hands with soap and water before inserting, and then again after. Another benefit of no-applicator tampons: they're small and easier to carry in your purse, pocket, or wallet. 

4) Buy fragrance-free. Most fragrances in personal care products are made from phthalates, questionnable chemicals that have been linked to a variety of health problems. You don't need perfumed tampons; as long as you don't have any leaks, there shouldn’t be any odor. If you do have a leak, the artificial fragrance won't really cover it up. 

5) Recycle the packaging. Like other products, buy packages that are made from recycled materials, and recycle them. Most feminine care products come in cardboard boxes which can be recycled with the usual newspapers and junk mail. The organic cotton tampons and pads come in packages made from recycled, post-consumer waste, a more eco-friendly option than a box made from virgin wood pulp.

6) Tell stores you don't want to buy tampons made with cotton or rayon treated with pesticides. Especially if the store manager is male, he'll quickly take down your name and phone number and promise to get back to you on your request for organic cotton tampons rather than stand in the store aisle and debate this issue with you.

7) Use reusable menstrual pads when convenient. Traditional sanitary napkins and panty liners get wrapped up and thrown in the trash. One reusable cloth menstrual pad, which consists of a foundation pad and an easy-to-remove liner, can last for five years. The downside is that they're inconvenient if you're not at home where you can easily launder them without much fuss. Though some women might choose to use menstrual pads all the time, another option is to use them at home, and then switch to a menstrual cup when you're out and about. 

Says Sheila Hollender of Seventh Generation, "Women can actually help change the way manufacturers make tampons and sanitary pads by choosing to purchase organic cotton pads and non chlorine bleached pads.

"Women have the power of the purse - should they choose to exercise it."

For more tips on healthy and green personal care, click here.

Salmonella-poisoned eggs make a strong argument for local, organic, family farms.

I love eggs, but I hate food poisoning more.

I'm betting so do the more than 2,000 people who have been sickened by eating tainted eggs produced by factory chicken farms in Iowa. After all, no one I know enjoys the impact salmonella has on their digestive tract, since it induces vomiting, dizziness, diahrrea, fever, abdominal cramps, blood infections and even death. 

 Investigators are still trying to understand how this potentially lethal bacterium was able to infect so many eggs in such a short period of time. One possible cause is getting a lot of attention: the way the laying hens were raised. Conventional poultry operations raise millions of chickens at a time, often in confined spaces and under filthy and inhumane conditions that reduce the ability of the animals to fight off germs. When disease hits, it spreads like wildfire. But with a fire you can see the flames coming. With salmonella, you don't know it's got you until you're doubled over in pain or on your way to the emergency room.

For now, eggs in 14 states in the midwest have been recalled. The good news is that this amounts to less than 1 percent of all eggs produced in the U.S. Still, disease outbreaks like these remind all of us to be vigilant about the food we eat. The following precautions will help you stay healthy:

* Check for tainted eggs. Eggs being recalled are packaged under the following brand names: Albertsons, Farm Fresh, James Farms, Glenview, Mountain Dairy, Ralphs, Boomsma, Lund, Kemps and Pacific Coast. Eggs are packed in varying sizes of cartons (6-egg cartons, dozen egg cartons, 18-egg cartons, and loose eggs for institutional use and repackaging) with Julian dates ranging from 136 to 229 and plant numbers 1720 and 1942. If you find any eggs that contain these dates or plant numbers, return them to the store immediately.

* Throwaway cracked or discolored eggs. Even if they're not tainted with salmonella, they could be harboring other "bugs" that could make you sick. It's better to be safe than sorry.

* Buy eggs produced locally on small family farms. Small farms generally produce safer food because farmers have fewer animals to police. If an animal does get sick, chances are the farmer will find it and treat it before an entire flock becomes a threat. If the farms are certified organic, so much the better. You can find the nearest family farm here. If you're interested, take a look at Smith Meadows Farm. I buy their eggs (see their chickens in the picture below) at my local farmers market on Sundays.

* Follow the same steps for preparing raw eggs that you would for raw chicken: handle carefully, cook thoroughly, and wash your hands with hot, soapy water when you're finished.

* Avoid eating raw eggs in any form. Yes, that means skip the raw cookie dough, the raw cake batter, the raw muffin mix. If making scrambled eggs or french toast, you can tell the egg is cooked through because it won't look shiny and wet.

* Keep eggs refrigerated until you use them. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control recommends that eggs be kept in a refrigerator cooled to 45 degrees F.

* Raise your own chickens. Believe it or not, raising backyard chickens has become increasingly popular, and not just in rural communities. Many municipalities are re-considering zoning laws to allow people to keep chickens in their backyards; this is even true in dense urban areas like Seattle, Washington and Boston, Massachusetts.

For more information on salmonella, here's our recap of the salmonella that infected peanut butter last year. 

It's Time for BlogHer to be Green - Inside and Out.

 BlogHer is the world's largest network of women bloggers. As such, it commands substantial financial sponsorships from multi-national conglomerates, many of whom jump at the chance to peddle their wares to the thousands of attendees who throng BlogHer's annual conferences. After all, these women are bloggers: their online presence functions like a  giant megaphone to the rest of the world. What company wouldn't want to promote its products to so many potential free advertisers?

How "green" the BlogHer conferences are has become increasingly controversial over the past few years. Last year, an uproar ensued when the group's conference seemed to have been commandeered by Pepsi and other companies that for three days bombarded conference-goers with trashy swag. I was on BlogHer's "Green Team"; the victory we thought we'd won convincing Pepsi not to hand out bottled water was undercut by all the soda bottles and other junk companies peddled right and left throughout the event.

This year, I did not attend the conference. But by all reports, the swag was much more restrained. Still, the confab was sponsored by a bevy of companies promoting the kind of throwaway "stuff" Annie Leonard shined such a bright spotlight on in her searing online documentary, The Story of Stuff. To wit, not only did the companies give away a lot of junk - they also sponsored a suite where conference goers could throw it away (or "recycle" it to places like homeless shelters, begging the question: if you don't want it, why do you think a homeless person does?).

There are a lot of important questions that need to be asked around the dynamics of an event like the BlogHer conference. What is the responsibility of any conference to make its event "green"? Should a conference use the real clout it has to pressure its partners to attain the highest possible level of responsibility? Should organizations and individuals hold companies responsible for their actions by withholding access to their members - and their money?

I take issue with the suggestion that BlogHer should be let off the hook for the many wasteful products it  allows companies to promote at its conferences. I don't think BlogHer or any other conference should be given a "pass" just because, as Lynn Miller notes at Organicmania, it is not a "green" conference. That message  marginalizes "green" rather than legitimizes it. Would anyone condone sexism at a conference because the event was not a "woman's" conference?

But there is a more important point to be made. Companies that promote their products at BlogHer do so with only one goal in mind: to  perpetuate the same patterns of wasteful consumption that have wreaked havoc on the environment heretofore. I often say that we women, who spend $.85 of every dollar in the marketplace, have the power to change the world by changing the way we spend our money. But honestly, the world wouldn't be in the shape it's in if women hadn't been buying so much junk to begin with. I'd wager that more women who attended BlogHer will be blogging about the cute little toy or other product they got for free than the purified water they drank.

Conference organizers argue that corporate sponsorships (and those product give-aways) make conference attendance fees cheap. But is cheap always better?

If you need to think about your answer, read Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture by investigative reporter Ellen Ruppel Shell. Says Shell, "America has been transformed by its relentless fixation on bargains. This pervasive yet little-examined obsession is arguably the most powerful and devastating market force of our time. It has fueled an excess of consumerism that blights our landscapes, raises personal debt, lowers our standard of living, and even skews our concept of time."

BlogHer has the potential to be a truly revolutionary force for good, but not because it offers purified water at its conferences, or puts its program online instead of printing it on paper. In this day and age, actions like these should be a no-brainer. What would put BlogHer on the map would be to adhere to a list of socially and environmentally responsible criteria that its corporate sponsors must meet in order to be affiliated with the world's largest network of women bloggers. (NOTE: Green  America is extremely selective about who it allows to exhibit at its events - and it draws many more thousands of people  to the multiple events it stages in several cities every year than does BlogHer.)

Would the number of corporate sponsors shrink initially if BlogHer set a true green threshold for conference underwriting? Perhaps. Or perhaps BlogHer's vision would inspire companies to new heights of environmental responsibility. I'd put my money on the latter. There's certainly precedent for throwing down the gauntlet: remember the Sullivan Principles? Apartheid ended, in part, because so many consumers called for its demise - and threatened to boycot companies unless they did, too.   

Most companies exhibiting at BlogHer and underwriting the group's programs have 'green' products in the works, if not already on store shelves. But they're marginalizing them the same way BlogHer is, and making them the exception, not the rule.

BlogHer is a megaphone to women across the U.S. and increasingly, around the world. It's time for that megaphone to be green, inside and out.

Students Start Food Fight So They Can Have Re-usable Lunch Trays.

Kids are going green, and not just at home. A cadre of student activists at Piney Branch elementary school in Takoma Park, MD, are agitating to replace the throw-away polystyrene lunch trays used in their public school cafeteria with reusable, washable ones. They've raised over $10,000 towards the purchase of a dishwasher to clean the trays. Officials who oversee the school in Montgomery County, MD have thus far refused to allow the kids to even test out a reusable trays program, saying it is too expensive. But the kids are fighting on.

Full disclosure: Both my kids attended Piney Branch, which is located near the Washington, D.C. border about three blocks from my house, and educates students in the third, fourth and fifth grades. But my son and daughter left long before more environmentally aware kids formed "The Young Activists Club" and launched their inspiring reusable tray campaign.

The kids are concerned because the polystyrene in the trays is a "known neurotoxin and suspected human carcinogen," they say on their website.

"But there's more," they say. "It turns out polystyrene has a high carbon footprint as it's made from fossil fuels. In addition, unlike other types of plastics such as beverage bottles (PET, #1) and milk jugs (HDPE, #2), its recycling level is virtually zero. It is also nonbiodegradable. This means polystyrene that is littered will end up eventually in our watersheds and the world's oceans where it can have devastating impacts on water life.

"Plus, the disposable polystyrene trays cost our school thousands of dollars a year. Based on 6 cases a week used, we calculated that the County spends $3,497 to supply Piney Branch Elementary with disposable trays and another $1,522 to provide the school with disposable plastic cutlery each year."

The kids, who are advised by two parent volunteers, argue that it would be cheaper, healthier and better for the environment to use a safer alternative. "There are about two dozen communities that have banned in one way or another the use of polystyrene for food service ware. Yeah! We are not alone!"

 

In addition to washable ware, which is the best environmental choice, eco-friendlier options include compostable paper trays. 

 

The kids plan to appeal the County's decision and continue to agitate for reusable or more environmentally friendly lunch trays. Meanwhile, they've produced a YouTube video in which they perform the song they've written to explain their campaign. It's called, "Goodnight, Styrene," which they sing to the tune of "Goodnight, Irene." Take a look.

 

Thumbs up, kids!

 

Little girls are worrying about bras when they should still be playing with Play Dough.

Girls six and seven years old should not have to go shopping for a bra.

But in this day and age, it seems like that's exactly what they have to do. A new study reported in the journal Pediatrics found that very little girls are developing breasts earlier than ever before, increasing their risk of breast cancer and other health problems and subjecting them to taunts from boys that undermine their self esteem. The study's authors say exposure to toxic chemicals like Bisphenol A (BPA), some preservatives, and additives found in plastic may be among the reasons why.

Red flags have been flying for several years about the threats toxic chemicals pose to girls' reproductive organs. “Young girls are exposed to dozens of potentially toxic chemicals on a daily basis,” Ted Schettler, M.D., M.P.H., Science Director for the Science and Environmental Health Network, told the New York Times. “Some of these can mimic the natural hormone, estrogen. Although individually their estrogenic activity may be relatively weak, their effects are additive. In the aggregate they could be having significant health effects, including contributing to the early onset of breast development. We need a new law to evaluate chemicals and protect our children from harmful exposures.”

Efforts are underway to pass the Safe Chemicals Act, legislation that would require safety testing for chemicals used in personal care products, cleansers, kids' toys, and other products that could damage a developing child. We should all encourage our Senators and Representatives to support it. But it could take years to pass a new law, and years more before it goes into effect.

What can you do in the meantime?

* Eat more organic food, and feed organic food to your kids, too. Yep, most of the time it costs more. But would you rather spend money on healthier milk and organic vegetables, or training bras? And honestly, if you're still buying bottled water, now's the time to stop and shift your spending to food that's actually worth the price. Take a look at these "price buster" tips for more ways good food can cost you less.

* Eat less meat. Unless you're buying organic meat, the beef, pork and poultry you're eating and feeding your family aare probably laden with growth homones. A diet made up mostly of fruits, vegetables and whole grains is a lot healthier, overall. Just in case you're still on the fence about this one, here are a few more advantages to limiting or eliminating meat in your diet.

* Look for BPA-free everything. Nowadays, no one should be buying anything made from plastic unless it clearly says "BPA-free" on the label. Baby bottles? Rubber duckies? Water bottles? Make-up containers? If it's plastic and doesn't say BPA-free don't buy it.

* Use fewer personal care products, both for yourself and for your kids. Babies are born with perfect skin - why do we insist on slathering them with lotion? As for ourselves, most women put more than ten different products on their skin every day. While no one of these products poses an imminent threat, over time, the multiple exposures we suffer add up.  Limit what you put on yourself and your kids, and choose products that contain mostly natural plant ingredients rather than synthetic chemicals.

* Exercise, and exercise your kids. The Pediatrics study showed that early breast development was more likely in girls that were overweight. Keep your kids active. Turn off the tv and get moving!

Want to Change What Stores Stock on Their Shelves? Go Meet With Them. These Women Did.

Big Green Purse urges consumers to shift their spending to greener products and services as a faster way to protect people and the planet. But that can be tough if you can't find environmentally-friendly products at the stores where you commonly shop. After all, currently, only 3.5% of the produce in most grocery stores is organic. Most of the paper products you'll see - like toilet and facial tissue, paper towels and napkins - aren't made from recycled fiber. Many cleaning and personal care products contain nasty chemicals you'd rather not have in your home.

Sure, you have a lot of eco choices if you have the time, not just to order online, but to wait for delivery. But if you're in a hurry (and who isn't?) and you're already at the market or the local convenience store, you'll probably be out of luck.

If Beth Radow has her way, that will change, at least in her Mamaroneck, New York neighborhood. That's where Beth has mobilized women to meet with store managers to encourage them to make "going green" easier for anyone who wants more eco-friendly options.

Beth (tall woman in blue in center of photo) is the president of the Larchmont-Mamaroneck League of Women Voters Chapter. A passionate environmentalist and a concerned parent, Beth is also an attorney with a "can do, must do" attitude about social change. In fact, the theme for her presidency at the League is "We, The People," because, she says, "I want to empower people to be agents of social change."

With social and environmental change in mind, Beth recently marshalled a force of about 15 women aged 17 to 92 to meet with representatives of their Trader Joe's, Stop-and-Shop, and A&P. This "Supermarket Sweep" was organized against the backdrop of theGulf oil disaster. Said Beth in inviting people to participate, "Gas guzzling semis truck in goods to our stores on a regular basis from near and distant points. How might our stores save on fuel? As professionals and heads of households, we make seemingly unending car trips to and from the store and elsewhere. It all adds up."

Beth invited folks to walk to the stores with their own shopping carts or reusable canvas bags in order to drive home their concerns about energy conservation, noting "This Walk to the store behind a cart instead of a wheel puts a focus on what we ourselves can do to walk the walk when it comes to reducing fuel consumption."

Beth also made copies of Big Green Purse: Use Your Spending Power to Create a Cleaner, Greener World available as a primer on the clout women can have when they decide to make their money matter.

Prior to the "Sweep," we brainstormed a list of questions Beth and her group could ask the store managers when they met. How is the store saving energy? What steps are being taken to sell locally-grown food? How can the store reduce excess packaging?

Beth also took the opportunity to suggest that stores reward shoppers who walk to their establishments the same way they reward shoppers who bring their own bags by giving them a nickel/per bag credit.

Beth said she and the other women in the group didn't know what to expect when they got to each store. They were pleasantly surprised to find that the store managers, particularly at Trader Joe's and Stop-and-Shop, were eager to hear what they had to say. Local news reports glowingly featured the "Sweep," the first of its kind in th region.

“We got a wealth of information…about the way the stores work,” Beth concluded, pronouncing this first foray a success. “The customer has a lot more clout than I think we realized.” (That's what Big Green Purse is all about!)

Beth will be conducting follow-up meetings with each store in August, when she hopes to inspire the stores to offer customers who walk or bike an energy credit of some sort.

Meanwhile, if your local group wants to stage a Green Supermarket Sweep, send me an e-mail: Diane@biggreenpurse.com.

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Five Steps to a Greener, Cleaner Drain

  Let's face it, clogged or slow moving drains are a bit of a drag. They leave a mess in the sink and actually stink if you wait too long to clean them up. 

Most people hastily grab the nearest (and nastiest) drain cleaners they can find, hoping for instant gratification. But you're not "most" people, are you? You'd like to find an alternative to sodium hydroxide, also known as lye, the active ingredient in common drain cleaners. Sodim hydroxide can burn skin and aggravate the respiratory system if it's not handled properly. It can also induce vomiting and cause stomach problems if kids accidentally swallow it, so it needs to be stored safely, preferably under lock and key.

A wide variety of alternatives claim to be eco-friendly because they use enzymes or "natural" bacteria, but to tell you the truth, those products haven't worked for me. Here's what does: 

1) Pour a kettle full of boiling water down the drain.

2) Get a thin, flexible wire plumber's snake (straighten out a metal coat hanger if you don't have a snake handy) and thread it down the drain until it reaches the clog.

3) Work the snake back and forth and up and down to loosen as much of the stuck material as possible.

4) Pour a half-cup of baking soda into the drain. Follow with a cup of vinegar and immediately plug the drain. The vinegar will interact with the baking soda to dissolve whatever materials are still clogging the drain.

5) Flush with two kettles full of boiling water, one right after the other; probe with the snake to make sure the clog is gone.

This sounds like a lot, but it actually only takes ten minutes at most (compared to 30-45 minutes if you had to go to the store and buy drain cleaner). Once your drain is clear, keep it that way with a weekly flush of boiling water. It also helps to put a trap over the drain to capture soap flakes, hair, nail clippings and anything else before they get swept into the drain and become a nuisance.

For more green (and cheap) cleaning tips, start here.

NOTE: Have you joined the One in a Million campaign? You can add this green drain cleaning solution to your balance sheet.

Test Drive the New Chevy Volt With Me

The Chevy Volt is electrifying the car market - especially in the wake of the oil disasters in the Gulf of Mexico and now, Lake Michigan. Every one of us needs to stop using oil so the Volt, which can drive 40 miles on a battery powered by electricity rather than an engine fueled by oil, has a lot of appeal. General Motors, which is taking orders on the car for delivery this fall, claims the vehicle is "designed to move 75% of America's daily commuters without a single drop of gas. That means for someone who drives less than 40 miles per day (which is most Americans), Chevy Volt will use zero gasoline and produce zero emissions." After 40 miles, a smaller, 4-cylinder internal combusion engine uses premium-grade gasoline to produce more electricity, extending the car's range an additional 300 miles.  

 I'd already been on Fox News talking about the Volt; now I jumped at the chance to do a test drive. I regularly get 45 mpg on my 2002 Prius, which I love. And last summer I test drove the Ford Fusion Hybrid for a week and loved it (even though its mileage, while better than a regular sedan, is still lower than the Prius.) But a car I can drive that gets 0 mpg - and still covers 40 miles? That sounded pretty good.

I drove over to nearby University of Maryland, where test drives were being conducted. I waited around for a few minutes until it was my turn to get behind the wheel. I slid into the driver's seat, and turned the car on. Like the Prius, the car is very quiet - if you don't know it's coming, you won't hear it, that's for sure.

The car has a state-of-the-art dashboard so you can back-up without looking over your shoulder; constantly monitor how much fuel you're using; stay connected to your Bluetooth technology if you use it; and enjoy the high-quality BOSE sound system.

It comfortably seats four people of average height. The seat sits low because the vehicle is so stream-lined, but consequently, it can be a little hard to see out the back or over your shoulder when you're changing lanes.

Driving the car is simple as pie. I could only take it for a short spin around the campus, so I don't know if it is as tricky as the Prius when it comes to achieving promised benefits: the Prius is supposed to get as much as 50 mpg, but it takes a very light foot on the pedal, and a lot of coasting downhill, to achieve those gains driving in the city. Most people speed rather than drive the limit; a lot of us race between stop signs and street signals, too, all of which reduce average fuel efficiency. I couldn't drive the Volt long enough to know if personal driving style will prevent a driver from actually covering 40 miles on the single electrical charge as promised. That's something worth paying attention to.

One added benefit of the Volt is that you can recharge it at home, with a standard 120-volt cable. And if you plug it in at night, the electricity you buy from your power company to pump into your car will be a bit cheaper. 

Is the Volt an improvement over gasoline-powered vehicles? Absolutely.

Still, I can't help but think that we'd all be better off not owning cars at all. We could walk and bicycle more in our neighborhoods, telecommute one or two days a week to work, carpool, shop online, use ZipCar or other car membership sites, or rent the new electric Nissan Leaf from Enterprise.

I don't think I'll be shelling out $40,000 for a Volt any time soon. It makes more sense, at least for right now, to drive less and follow these money-saving suggestions for saving gas when I do drive.